April 2009 Archives

In my cell biology class the other day we had an ethics talk about new things coming out and what is right or wrong in our opinion. An article came up about two parents who were deaf and they wanted their son or daughter (they didn't care boy or girl) to be deaf as well. So they told the doctor to pick the embryo that would produce a child that was deaf like them so that the child could fit into their family better.
We talked about how we felt about this and most of the class thought that is wasn't right for the parents to be able to decide that for the child. Without the child knowing he was destined for a life of hearing aids and struggles. Of course it isn't terrible to be deaf, but having to wear hearing aids and having problems causing them to frequent doctors' offices shouldn't be what parents wish upon their children.
It was really a heated discussion. Most of the class agreed that the parents were wrong to do this (it is like wishing your child had a disorder or disease) but one person thought that parents should be able to do whatever they want with their embryos.
If I was a parent who decided to do this I would definitely need some sort of sleep aid to go to bed at night. I am completely against this and feel that you should want your child to be healthy in any way possible and should love them the way that they come out.
We went on to talk about a lot of other topics as well like knowing what diseases your embryos may carry and insurance policies and testing on humans and so on, but this one topic really stood out to me and stuck in my mind. I feel like people shouldn't be able to change who you are before you are born without you having any say in it. I guess though that's an issue that I will have to deal with in the field that I am going into (pharmacy and research) and I will need to form a strong opinion on my beliefs before I enter the field. I definitely want to practice fair and impartial medicine when I'm a pharmacist one day but then at the same time I need to make sure that I stay true to everything that I believe in.

My father came home and told my mother last night that he has decided that he is quitting his job. That's right, a struggling economy where everyone else is hanging onto their jobs with all their might and my father is choosing to become unemployed. Well, I couldn't believe it either and then I decided to talk to him and see if he had really lost his mind or not. I mean this didn't really sound like a good idea, if you ask me, but I wanted to hear him out because my father is usually a very smart man, and I just knew that there must be more to it than what my mother was telling me. I got him on the phone and asked him about what was going on with the job thing. That is when he told me that he has been looking into how to franchise for a while now, and now that he has thoroughly investigated it he has decided that it is the right move for him now. I really wasn't sure about this buying franchise idea, so I probed him further and he told me that he has the money to invest in it, and that would allow him to be his own boss without many of the headaches. He said that he anticipates some layoffs coming at the company he is working for now anyway, so why not take the initiative and do something that he has always wanted to do, become the boss of his own place. Not only that but he told me with a franchise, you can have family come and work for you and that would allow mom and dad to work together on the business. Plus they will help cover health insurance benefits which is another big plus, especially at his age. All in all it didn't sound like such a bad idea. I asked about how mom was feeling about the whole thing and he assured me that they spoke about it a lot, until the wee hours of the morning as a matter of fact, and she is mostly on board about it now. Of course, he admits that this is going to mean big changes to their lives, but he is sure those changes will be for the best in the long run.